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Surprise Winter Christmas Week-end Get-away in Jordan

grabbing the opportunity of holiday season December 23 to December 27, 2014"Jordan has a strange, haunting beauty and a sense of timelessness. Dotted with the ruins of empires once great, it is the last resort of yesterday in the world of tomorrow. I love every inch of it." - King Hussein I

My 1st travel during Christmas weekend, 1st business trip with a side trip, 25th country visited in Asia and 41 countries visited in total so far. Filipino travellers have to apply for tourist visa first before arriving in Jordan. But since this was a sponsored journey, I have an invitation letter and a business visa was issued upon arrival.

Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab kingdom in Western Asia, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, and Israel and State of Palestine to the west. Although Jordan is a constitutional monarchy, the king holds wide executive and legislative powers. Jordan has enjoyed "advanced status" with the European Union since December 2010, and it is a member of the Euro-Mediterranean free trade area. It is also a founding member of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan

Interesting Facts about Jordan:1. The Jordanians believe that praising children excessively can invite bad luck and is generally avoided.2. In ancient times, Jordan used to be a segment of the Fertile Crescent which was the crescent-shaped region that included fertile land in an otherwise arid part of the globe.3. The Baptism site by the Jordan River is one of modern biblical archeology’s most notable discoveries. It is believed that this area called Wadi Kharar is where John the Baptist resided and was the baptism place of Jesus Christ.4. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the city of Petra was literally carved into rock 2000 years ago. It was only in the 19th century that the Western world got to know of it. This city has to be entered through a narrow gorge that is only 1.25 km wide.5. The Jordanian capital, Amman is unique in that it was originally constructed across seven hills also known as “jabals”. The city now spans 19 of them. It has no “East side” or “West side”. Directions are given based on “Jabals”.

Arriving from Queen Alia (Amman) International Airport;Kuwait Airways flight arrived almost exactly as per schedule. I immediately
walked fast to visa-on-arrival lane. I
handed-over my passport, invitation letter and 40JOD visa fee. Immigration Officer asked usual questions like "What visa do you
have?, Why are you here?, How many days and where will you stay". While processing, I asked if Filipino's can avail visa-on-arrival even if do not possess an invitation letter. The Immigration Officer confirmed it but you have to have valid GCC residence visa as professional expat worker.Anyways, I divided this wonderful journey into different set of posts to be more specific on its content;